Competitor Car Prices

[tetebello]

Dear Eric,

The game is getting better and better after every patch release. One thing i have noticed, Competitor car price. It seems to be a price war.

I wanted to pointed out this point because i have noticed that my cars are always the most expensive ones.

Supercar at 18,000$, luxury sedans with prices of 13,000$ etc etc, I found this part of the game not really realistic and not in line with complexity of the game.

I have no issue to sell cars below 10,000$ (even the most complex one) but especially when you have different brands, pricing become a good tool to differentiate cars and models.

Is there any plan to tackle this issue? IMHO i think it can contributing positively Also to differentiate premium brand from mainstream ones inside the game.

Thanks for considering.

Tete

[Frankschtaldt]

A good way to handle this would be to vary the importance of price to different target groups. So, for example, limousine buyers pay little to no attention to the price tag while compact car buyers consider price to be the most important factor in their buying decisions.

[tetebello]

Perfectly agree with that, But i'm at year 2005 and i find luxury sedan at 8,000$ or as i said before SUpercar at 13000$....

There are no competitor vehicles with pricetag abouve 30,000$... all expensive vehicles are mines.

[freeman2344]

I agree that AI pricing mechanics are bit off right now (everything associated with the AI is TBH). That being said, the AI in my games usually doesn't set its prices too low, but rather too high. Most of the time, its OK though. AI pricing behavior can IMO also be influenced by the AI files, but I'm not sure of the effects of the parameters there. I have tinkered with them in the past, but to no conclusive avail. I'm fairly certain Eric will do some balancing there in the future.

For comparison, two screenshots from my modded game (I didn't touch the AI behavior, though my new vehicle classes could have an impact on pricing):

[Eric.B]

Freeman is correct, there are AI behavior code implemented, just not used currently. Much of their behavior (such as getting into price wars) can be effected with this code, although it's not fully tested.

Frank is also correct, I do need to implement a system in the demographics code that disregards price based on demographics. The AI should disregard price based on vehicle's intended demographics and Luxury ratings need to gain more power over price ratings in certain segments. I have a few ideas on how to go about this.

I will probably work in those changes at the same time I fix the AI component selection and include a required top speed to the consumer AI.


So expect some pricing relief in 1.18, although not the full spectrum of changes because I'm holding off on finishing the AI behavior code until the game is more complete and all the AI are added.